Thursday, December 13, 2012

"(Reuters) - The Syrian people no longer need the intervention of international
forces as rebels push towards the heart of the capital of Damascus to topple
President Bashar al-Assad, the new leader of Syria's opposition told
Reuters.Mouaz al-Khatib, the scion of a Damascene Muslim religious dynasty, said the
opposition would consider proposals from Assad to surrender power and leave the
country, but would not give any assurances until it saw a firm
proposal.
Flanked by bodyguards, al-Khatib was speaking to Reuters on Wednesday night
after a meeting of Western and Arab nations with the Syrian opposition in the
Moroccan city of Marrakech.
"The horrific conditions which the Syrian people endured prompted them to
call on the international community for military intervention at various times",
al-Khatib said.
"Now the Syrian people have nothing to lose. They handled their problems by
themselves. They no longer need international forces to protect them. The
international community has been in a slumber, silent and late (to react) as it
saw the Syrian people bleeding and their children killed for the past 20
months," the eloquent, soft-spoken opposition leader said.
On Assad, he said: "I only hope that he knows that he has no role in Syria or in the lives of the Syrian
people. The best thing is that he steps down and stops drinking the blood of the
Syrian people."......."